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Indeed that can often be the case esp when the padding is extra waffle. But I think if integrated into the narrative it would have added something. I thought there was more about that prison from my faded memony of the last time I read it

DB, good point. There's an implied contradiction in Culture interference; the culture will wipe out hegemonising swarms but are only too happy to remodel other societies after themselves. Double standards?

Azad seemed more repressive, aggressive, and extortionate than normal for a moderately advanced interstellar civilization.

'Poverty is not an injustice. There is no such thing as causes for poverty, only causes for wealth. Poverty is not a wrong, but taking money from those who have it to equalize incomes is basically theft, which is wrong.' - Typical Randroid

Whether they are a threat to the Culture is beside the point. No other space faring civilization is a real threat to the Culture; the involved species have come to an agreement to settle differences in non-warlike ways and divide the galaxy into spheres of influence. The whole point of the Culture is to do good according to their criteria. A space faring group like the Azadians is bent upon destroying and enslaving their own people and others as a matter of course. Culture precepts leave no choice other than changing the underlying rationale that fuels and directs the Azadian Empire. Undermining the grand game of Azad, which is the foundation of the empire, will hopefully result in internal collapse and allow the change the Culture seeks, and most assuredly will be directing. Future books expand on the rationale and results of Culture interference in other species social evolution.

I think SC had the wind taken out their sails in a later book if you think they got too cocky with the Empire of Azad.

'Poverty is not an injustice. There is no such thing as causes for poverty, only causes for wealth. Poverty is not a wrong, but taking money from those who have it to equalize incomes is basically theft, which is wrong.' - Typical Randroid